Does becoming spiritual involve running away from problems instead of solving them?
If the water is rising and say we rise above to a higher floor, but the water is still rising, the problem is still there. So, aren't we simply running away from the problem, avoiding the problem instead of solving the problem? Yes.
Solving the problem first requires that the problem solver themselves don't become a problem. Sometimes, if a person who is not very competent, they try to administer medicine to someone. Now, they may administer wrong medicine and make the situation worse.
So, quite often, the tendency is when we face a problem, we feel I have to solve it right now. But if we look back at our situations, quite often, our impulsive attempts to solve the problem, they make the problem worse. Just like if a snake has come and bitten me, I get angry.
How dare the snake bite me? I am going to chase the snake and kill the snake. The snake is slithering away. And I chase after the snake with my foot and bang my foot on it and kill it.
But in that process, if my heartbeat is increased, the poison is circulating in my body. I will end up dead. Okay, the snake has bitten me.
Okay, we will deal with the snake later. Right now, let me do some cut on the body, get the blood out, put a bandage around my legs so that blood does not go up. So, our reaction to a problem often aggravates the problem.
That is why, as a reflex action, first of all, moving away from the problem so that we can better deal with the problem, it is not avoiding or running away. It is simply preparing ourselves to deal with the problem. In any field we go, firefighters, they are meant to fight against fires.
But it is not that the first day a person gets admitted to firefighting, they are immediately sent into action. They will often make things worse. They need to be trained.
And training means that they learn how to respond to different situations. And then when they go into the firefighting, they can actually fight the fire. So, like that, a part of our training is to get adequate distance between us and the problem so that we can deal with the problem.
And sometimes, some people can use spirituality as an excuse for not dealing with the world itself. That is possible. But that is not what yogic spirituality is all about.
The Bhagavad Gita is about a warrior who wanted to renounce the world. But Krishna told Arjuna, no, you have a responsibility in the world, you have to do your responsibility. But do it in spiritual consciousness.
So, if we use our spirituality to just avoid problems, then we don't grow spiritually. Because growing spiritually essentially means becoming conscious of higher reality. So, if I am simply focused on oh, I don't want this problem, I don't want this problem, I don't want this problem, then I am not spiritually conscious, I am still problem conscious only.
And then I go from this situation away, I am not actually rising higher. I am simply going to some other situation. And at present there is no problem over there.
Eventually a problem is going to come. So, that means if we just do the spiritual activities externally without focusing our consciousness on spiritual reality, and just doing the rituals externally, then we won't grow. Then that is not a vertical movement, that is simply a horizontal movement.
It's like I am in a part of an ocean where there are a lot of waves and I think oh, it's so turbulent over here. I am not actually trying to anchor myself. I try to, oh, the ocean over there looks so peaceful.
Let me go over there. And I swim over there. But by the time I go over there, I find the waves have come over there also.
So, spirituality, if it is not understood properly, can sometimes become an excuse for avoiding problems. But spirituality, when it is understood properly and practiced with proper understanding, then it helps us to prepare to deal with the problems. Does this answer your question?